Category Archives: World News

On Friday 9th day of DhullHijjah in the 10th year of Hijrah, our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered his last sermon on the Mount of Arafat. It was the Assembly Day on Arafat during what is now known as the Farewell Pilgrimage.

In his sermon, our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) spoke thus:

“Verily Allah has made inviolable for you each other’s blood and each other’s property, until you meet your Lord, even as He has made inviolable this holy day, this holy land and this holy month…”

“O men, and ponder my words which I now convey to you. I am leaving you with the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet. If you follow them, you will never go astray. O men, harken well my words. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not therefore, do injustice to your own selves…”

Fourteen hundred and seventeen years have since passed. My dear Muslim brothers and sisters, how our hearts do bleed when we witness the violent in-fighting within the Muslim brotherhood. Most heartrending is the bitter animosity among Palestinians – between the Hamas supporters and the forces loyal to the Fatah Party of President Mahmood Abbas. We beseech them to stop spilling the blood and destroying the property of their own brothers.

Do not give the enemies of Allah and His Religion, Islam cause to rejoice over our shameful behavior. It only results in weakening our position against the aggressor Israel and their patrons – the entire Western world. They have cunningly orchestrated the crippling economic and political situation in the Palestinian territories that has caused the inevitable eruption of conflict between a Muslim Palestinian brother and his fellow Muslim Palestinian brothers.

Our beloved Prophet warned us to steadfastly adhere to the Holy Qur’an and his Sunnah. Did he not face persecution and hostility far torturous from the Quraish and Meccan tribes that what our Palestinian brothers are suffering now? Take heed from his example, only through unbreakable solidarity among the Muslim brotherhood then did Allah’s help lead them out of their oppressive state.

Allah admonishes in the Noble Qur’an:

“All believers are but a single Brotherhood: So make peace and reconciliation between your two (contending) brothers; and be conscious of Allah, that you may receive mercy.” (49:10)

“And hold together unto the bond with Allah, and do not draw apart from one another. And remember the blessings of Allah when you were enemies. He brought your hearts together so that through His blessings you became brethren… and be not like those who have drawn apart unto them, these will face a tremendous suffering.” (3:103-105)

Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, let us unite in one Ummah and with one voice, respond with sincere conviction:

An Islamic State is one which opts to conduct its affairs in accordance with the revealed guidance of Islam, which accepts the sovereignty of God and the supremacy of His Law in all matters, and devotes its efforts and resources to ensuring the existence of a right society living in accordance with the Will of God. Due to the unique geo-political circumstances of today's world, so dominated by a lone superpower such as the world has never seen, which uses that power to impose Godless secular materialism upon all of world society, it is not the moment for any individual nation to make the attempt to become a true Islamic State. The only possibility for a future world, living rightly accoidng to the Will of Allah, may be the creation of a Worldwide Islamic State.

The New Yorker magazine reported in its current issue that, “The administration of President George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility.” That statement was widely reported in yesterday’s news and is of such dire importance to the survival to the whole human race that I am astounded there has been no worldwide expression of outrage. Is it not obvious to everyone that the use of nuclear weapons is an insane and suicidal act?

I say to you my dear Muslim brothers and sisters, people of America, and citizens of the world; this madness must not be allowed to continue, it must be stopped. This grave issue, ultimately threatening all life on our planet, should be sufficient to unite us all, no matter our disagreements on various other matters. Nuclear weapons have no place in a sane world. Given this publicly revealed threat to use nuclear weapons by the government of the world’s most powerful and influential nation I fear we must in all seriousness ask the question, “Has something happened to cause the human race to become insane?” As an early step in human society’s return to sanity the billions of human beings who make up world society should first petition their governments to take an unequivocal and unwavering public stand against the use of nuclear weapons by any nation, and every government in the world must take whatever action that is necessary to successfully ensure nuclear weapons are never used by any nation as they support the united will of their people.

(http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0320-02.htm)The war in Iraq, budget deficits, the damaged case against Zacarias Moussaoui, port security — all the bad news that is sapping American morale and undercutting President George W. Bush's popularity comes from one source, according to opposition Democrats: incompetence.

The word figures prominently in speeches delivered by leading members of the opposition, who have turned charges of incompetence into a common refrain that can be heard in discussion of any issue at hand.

The charge has even eclipsed accusations of corruption that had been used for months to describe Republican legal woes, from the indictment of Lewis Libby, a former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, to the eight-year prison sentence handed down to Republican former congressman Randy Cunningham for accepting bribes.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid mentioned "incompetence" three times in two sentences when he spoke to reporters last week.

Commenting on the trial of French national Moussaoui, the only US case linked to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Reid exclaimed: "Think about this, to show the incompetence of what's going on in Washington with this administration."

Reid was referring to a mistake committed by a government lawyer that almost saw the death penalty trial thrown out.

Charges of incompetence resonate even more because they are repeated by commentators of every political stripe.

"They made a whole series of mistakes," argued Stephen Hess, an analyst with the Brookings Institution, who worked for the Republican administrations of presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

"In some cases, it's managerial incompetence," said Hess, commenting on the Bush administration's fiasco in managing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that hit last August.

"In other instances, it's political incompetence," said Hess, referring to the administration's inability to anticipate fallout from a port management deal with DP World, a company based in the United Arab Emirates.

The mistake was even more surprising because the Bush team was credited with an infallible political sense following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, which consolidated Republican control in both chambers of Congress.

The charges of "incompetence" that are being so widely aired are reminiscent of those heard in the months before the 2001 attacks, when opponents accused the Bush administration of "incompetence" and "arrogance."

Analysts considered the team that Bush, a former Texas governor, assembled when he took office in January 2001 extremely competent. But Bush's political honeymoon was a short one.

When Republicans lost control of the US Senate in May 2001 following the defection of Jim Jeffords, upset at the administration's decision to spurn the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases, commentators began to question the White House's political skills.

Approval ratings plummeted, and an economic slowdown coupled with charges that the president was taking too many vacations put the White House of the defensive.

In July 2001 then White House spokesman Ari Fleischer insisted it was absurd to say the president was losing control. At the time, Bush's approval rating was slightly above 50 percent.

Then came the September 11 terror attacks and the country rallied around the president. Bush's ratings shot up to around 80 percent.

These days the president's poll numbers have sunk to an all-time low: only 36 percent of those surveyed said they were satisfied with his performance, while 60 percent gave him a thumbs-down, according to recent polls

A few days ago I saw a video of the press conference held by Jill Carroll, the freed American journalist for the Christian Science Monitor after her 82-days of captivity in Iraq. I was amazed at the honesty and freedom with which she spoke. Usually after release hostages are not allowed to face the media until they are ‘debriefed’ by American authorities, often officials of the CIA. Of course after these debriefings you will virtually never see an ex-hostage speaking freely and honestly.Whatever else happens during those so-called debriefings let there be no doubt that the ex-hostages will be left with no question as to what is expected of them in the name of American patriotism, in the security interests of the United States, and ultimately for their own safety. They are to say little or nothing positive about the hostage takers or their cause, they are to make their time as hostages seem as terrible as possible, and of utmost importance, they are never to say anything negative about the US Government, its policies, or its officials. If you were to believe that no one has ever had their life threatened by US Government officials during these ‘debriefings’ as a means to ensure complete compliance with their demands then you would be deluding yourself. A debriefing can be an extremely unpleasant experience for those who do not wholeheartedly support the policies and actions of the United States government.

Actually this was the first time I ever saw an ex-hostage interviewed by the media before being debriefed by US Government officials. At the time I remember thinking that it was a very wise move by the Iraqis to arrange the press interview prior to handing Jill Carroll over to the American authorities who would have taken complete control of her life and her words. Obviously even with the best of treatment, being held hostage with your life at stake for 82 days is going to be a terrifying experience to undergo. I was amazed to see how well Jill Carroll looked and even more amazed to hear what she had to say.

At the press conference Jill Carroll stressed that she has always been well treated by her captors, that she had never even been threatened, and that her captors believed what they were doing was in the best interests of their beloved country. Then she went on to say that United States President George W. Bush had lied time after time to the American people to convince them he was right to have attacked and occupied the Iraqi nation and people; and, she said that the best thing America could do now is immediately remove all its military forces from Iraq.

Very brave Jill, very honest; all truths that needed to be said and heard. Unfortunately, I immediately had no doubt that the massive American government propaganda machine and its compliant media spinners would be hard at work preparing to discredit and discount everything Jill Carroll had said. Remarks seen to be so very powerfully against American interests could not be allowed to prevail, they must be destroyed, Jill along with them if necessary. I knew that within days we would hear from her parents, her friends, her employer, US government officials, a never ending string of self proclaimed ‘experts’ on political kidnappings and hostage behaviour, and now a seeming infinity of vicious well-funded neo-con “blogs” on the internet most providing reasons why Jill Carroll’s honest expression of her feelings and beliefs were done under duress and how she could never have truly meant any of what she had to say, and with a few making every kind of cruel personal attack on Jill Carroll that could be imagined.

Here you can see a few of the milder attempts I already found in the news media to discredit the words of Jill Carroll, but I am sure you will see many more:

1. Her employer, The Christian Science Monitor, said “Carroll was warned by her captors that she may be killed if she talked with US officials after her release” 2. Jill Carroll was at first reluctant to go with an American military escort to the fortified Green Zone, headquarters of the US military. To justify this reluctance the media reported her parents had told them Jill had admitted her abductors had told her the Green Zone had been infiltrated by militants and she might be killed if she cooperated with the Americans. 3. According to ‘official’ reports Carroll's captors had, the night before her release, demanded that she make a video praising her captors and attacking the United States. 4. Friends said such statements didn’t sound like Jill at all and she must have been coerced into saying such things. 5. Jill Carroll’s father said his daughter had told him she felt compelled to make those statements strongly critical of George Bush, the US president, and his policy in Iraq to secure her freedom.

I say to you my dear Muslim brothers and sisters; I am convinced the truth is in the original statement made by Jill Carroll at the press conference in front of the world media; but, most people will never now know for sure, since truth has been a completely lost commodity during the Bush Presidency and after the illegal attack and occupation of Iraq. It is not only America that is at fault, most of the world’s Western governments, the Western media, and Western culture have forsaken truth in search of some ill defined, unattainable, Godless future for the world’s people. Today things have gotten so bad that Muslims cannot even trust other Muslims. Maybe someday history will be written objectively and hundreds of years of falsehoods will be uncovered and the truth revealed. Regarding the case of Jill Carroll, all I can say is that my many years of training and practice in ‘reading’ the truth in human communication tells me everything Jill Carroll originally said at the press conference was the unequivocal truth.

I keep reading in the news that United States President George W. Bush maintains his claim that the removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from office was sufficient justification for the American military attack on Iraq. I feel extremely upset over this issue so I will try to make my response brief. Even as I have to depend on largely ‘managed’ news reports as to what is happening in Iraq several things have become very clear. Although the US government and their military forces apparently do not care enough for the lives of the Iraqi people to even bother to count the numbers of Iraqis they have killed, given the available information it would be difficult to believe that less than 100,000 Iraqi citizens, and probably many more, have had their lives stolen from them as a direct result of the murderous American military attack on Iraq.From my knowledge of Iraq before the American attacks on their country I have no doubt that that there are few areas in the life of the ordinary Iraqi people that are better now than they were before those brutal attacks. In polls the Iraqi people and many members of the present Iraqi government have left no doubt that they believe the American attacks on their country and people, followed by a brutal military occupation of their nation, have resulted in a severe deterioration in most aspects of daily life. Whatever good, if any, that has come from the American attacks on Iraq pales in comparison with the massive harm wrought upon the nation and its people.

I find it just so incredible that here in the 21st Century the governments of the world, supposedly represented and given voice by the United Nations, would remain relatively silent as they accept or at least permit one very powerful country, the United States, under no known threat from another almost helpless country, Iraq, to make such a costly and lethal military attack upon a mostly innocent civilian population. How can the lives of 100,000 or more Iraqi people, virtually all of them innocent civilians mean so little in the eyes of the world’s governments? I am truly appalled by this great and cruel wrong that has been perpetrated directly upon the people of Iraq and indirectly upon all the people of the world. For the survival of the human race we must have peace in the world, and we are never going to have peace in the world when there is a nation among the society of nations that is willing to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings to achieve their goals regardless of whether those goals be envious or foul.

I say to you my dear Muslim brothers and sisters; we must make sure no more military attacks such as the anachronistic American attack on Iraq ever happen again. The human race has been placed here by Allah with a purpose of such immense importance that we cannot allow selfish nationalistic ideologies to endanger Allah’s Plan for His Creation.